Winter Youth Olympic Games - Mixed Doubles Semifinals

Innsbruck, AustriaJanuary 22, 2012

KOR/NOR v JPN/KOR Photo: WCF/Richard Gray

Nicole Muskatewitz, Germany, and Michael Brunner, Switzerland, will meet Eunbi Kim of Korea and Martin Sesaker of Norway in the Gold medal game in the unique Mixed Doubles Curling Competition at the Winter Youth Olympic Games.

In the bronze medal game, Marina Verenich of Russia and the USA’s Korey Dropkin will meet Japan’s Mako Tamakuma and Minhyeon Yoo from Korea. Both games will take place today, SunDay 22 January at 13:00 (local time / CET).

All teams were involved in this morning’s semifinals, which saw the German/Swiss pair beat Russia’s Verenich and USA’s Dropkin by 7-3 in seven ends. Steals of single points in the first two ends and scores of two and three in the fourth and sixth ends helped Brunner, already winner of a Gold medal in the Mixed Team event, and his partner claim victory.

After the game, Brunner explained that he is looking forward to adding to his medal collection. He said: “I feel really awesome, it feels really good to know I will get a second medal and we are very hopefully for the final. Of course I would like it to be a Gold, but I will go into the game and have some fun and you never know what will happen in curling. “

In the other semifinal, two Korean players came head to head, with Martin Sesaker and his Korean team-mate, Eunbi Kim winning 13-6 against Japan’s Mako Tamakuma and Minhyeon Yoo from Korea. A score of five in the second end set the pair on their way, never losing momentum as they picked up two steals in the last two ends, scoring one and three to seal the victory.

Afterwards, Kim shared mixed emotions. She said: “I feel really happy because it was a big win and we’re through to the final, but also really sad because another Korean lost as a result. It was really hard today playing against someone from my Mixed Team - it didn’t feel like it was competition, it felt like it was Practice.”

The final takes place on SunDay 22 January at 13:00 local time (CET) at the Innsbruck Exhibition Centre.

The Medal Ceremonies for the Mixed Doubles and the Mixed Team competitions will take place immediately after the final Mixed Doubles games at the Innsbruck Exhibition Centre.

The Mixed Doubles Curling Competition at the Winter Youth Olympic Games sees athletes from different nations paired together to form teams. The team line ups were decided on the final standings of the Mixed Team Curling Competition which took place at the start of the Games. In all, there were 32 teams at the start of the Mixed Doubles event, which has been a single knockout – meaning teams have had to win to stay in for the next round.

Instead of playing in teams of four, mixed doubles curling is for teams of two players – one male and one female. The game is played on the same sheets of ice as ‘traditional’ curling. Teams have only six stones each (instead of eight) and one of those stones, from each team, is prepositioned on the centreline before each end of play starts. One player delivers the first and last stones and the other player plays the 2nd, 3rd and 4th stones. The two players can swap positions from one end to the next if they choose. The sweeping can be done by both team members.